Where playing with toy soldiers is the whole point - and sharing the joy of doing so. And keeping a record of what's been done and what is still awaiting completion. A note of caution for those unfamiliar: this activity can be remarkably addictive and take over your free time. Well, now wait a minute, it's so much fun that shouldn't be a problem. Oh, that's right. It's not!
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American Revolution (10/1)

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Red coats and blue, green coats and brown, British and Colonial, French and German, small battles and large - and all in the cause of the "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Dames." (Thank you Frank & Ernest)

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but for a few casualty figures, this gargantuan collection of figures is complete and awaiting painting, but its turn is not yet up for which see further down the tab list.

June 7, 2012

Okay, yes, I am reproducing in a public place potential evidence that I exist in an unbalanced mental state - but maybe we off balance folk are just having more fun! The evidence below.

If I had to abandon all put one of the many periods I have figures for - I'd shoot the person making such a dastardly suggestion! (maybe with a water gun, but I'd shoot the cad nonetheless) However, if I had to pick one period as my most favorite it'd probably be the American Revolution. The listing below reveals just how much I enjoy the period. Whether they will ever all get painted is another question all together.

Note that each battalion of infantry is eighteen figures and including command; each cavalry regiment consists of twelve mounted figures and twelve matching figures on foot; each gun is a model of a gun and four crewmen; all generals are represented by one mounted figure and one figure on foot - the foot figure indicating the rank of the general (who might not be an "actual" general, of course). For purposes of organization, I have everything in brigades of four battalions of infantry, two regiments of cavalry; the infantry brigades get a gun each and, of course, all the brigades get a commanding figure. And even though there were not divisions per se during this era, I have higher level "divisions" of four brigades each except for the two German ones which are three brigades each.

A couple of other things - I have some available alternative generals for the higher levels of command for various theaters and what if scenarios and/or campaigns. Also, while I list specific units - almost all of which I have a color image of to use as a guide when painting - any unit can be used as some other unit for historical scenarios. And a close examination will reveal I can cover all the theaters of the war. Lastly, one of the reasons for this list - and this blog - is evidence to support any insurance claim if some disaster were to befall my collection. (nasty shivering shudder typing that, I can tell you)

Yes, I know some of the cavalry were not in regimental strength but I wanted more cavalry than is usual - for hypothetical events I want to game one day.

Now I need to start deciding on what generals I want to represent - besides the obvious. And one last thing to add - with the addition of two dozen more casualty figures, I will have one casualty figure for every unit, each infantry battalion, each cavalry regiment, and each artillery piece; these will be used as indicators using my own unique system that I'll share one day. More later, pictures probably a lot later - unless you want to see unpainted figures.

Oh, for those who care, the vast majority - but not all - of the infantry comes from Musket Miniatures and the vast majority of the cavalry - but, again, not all - comes from Freikorps courtesy of QRF (and, thanks Geoff, for the help).

While editing, these thoughts - yes, I actually already own all these figures (just need the mentioned casualty figures). And I tried to balance the Continental figures to match, to some degree, the proportions each state supplied.

That ONLY adds up to 4007 items to paint! Of course, that doesn't include the civilians I have or will be painting up - but those do double duty with my French and Indian Wars - and I can always borrow more from my pirates.

For me there is more to the hobby than having battles - I am recreating the joy of the games I played when but a sprout where civilians were at least as important as the soldiers. I want my games to be "dynamic dioramas." And including so many civilians - and beasties, domestic and wild - appeals to the young, those not interested in militaria, and even some of the lasses. Who knows, maybe one or two of them will gravitate to our hobby. Just think on this: if every one of us brought just two people into the hobby during our tenure in it we'd triple it in size. A worthy goal, methinks.

January 9, 2013

So, I finally sent off an order to include those last casualty figures I need. I'm also posting one photo here but not of my collection. It's just one shot of a game I ran with figures from my friend's, the late Tony Mark, collection before they were sold on for benefit of his family. Fortunately, they went to another gamer in the area so I still get to play with them when he runs a game.

That odd looking item at the bottom right unit is just a colored q-tip (unused!) used as a status indicator.

January 14, 2013

At last, I can call this collection complete collected. I have two packs of American and two packs of British casualty figures from Musket Miniature that add up to 72 total. Since I only needed 23, the extra will fill in a need for some extra French and Indian War dead and the balance will likely be used as command stand casualties.

August 18, 2013

This collection wasn't slated for being worked on for awhile but for unknown reasons I decided to put some effort into this period. Recently I've primed enough bases to do one entire division for each side of the conflict plus an additional brigade of infantry per side. Now, when the mood does strike to work on the figures, I am ready to move forward. I do plan to pre-base all the figures to speed up the time it takes to get the figures table-combat ready.

February 25, 2014

One of the joys of this period is the continuing research that enhances knowledge - and then adjusts the collection of figures. And even after we 'complete' a collection, we can find new figures that we 'just have to have'. Or a new range appears and we decide to sample it. Well, this post is a result of all three of those factors. Actually, we could add a fourth element of a 'disappeared' range re-appearing.

The new information comes from here: http://www.military-historians.org/company/journal/guards/guards.htm

Not new information in the world, but more detailed information than I'd had prior to finding that information. And while I've sampled the newer range of Peter Pig figures and have added two new units of foot militia (each with 18 unique sculpts - though duplicates across the two units) and one mounted unit of militia with dismounts, a new unit of highlanders in trousers and a new unit of jaegers, plus a unit of supply troops (using the extra and out of ammo figures), and two groups of civilains - men and women, plus three packs of artillerists (ragged, round hat, and german), and a delightful grouping of scout figures (both mounted and foot), plus plenty of additional casualty figures (which I really needed, the others were only wants), I'm going to dip into a different source for reforming my foot guard in a more historical organization.

And that source is the re-emergent Polly Oliver range of figures for this era. I used to drool over those figures but then they dropped away before I started buying for the period. Now I can get some just to have some. I will, absolutely, get some of their fusilier figures - I know they probably didn't wear those hats on campaign in America. But sometimes we collect figures just because; certainly the case in this instance.

These additions do mean I have to dive back into all of my collected resources - and maybe add to those resources! - to sort out how to incorporate all of this into my already much too large collection. All of this rather flies in the face of my clear need to down size my overall collection of figures just to achieve some level of sanity. But, since the American Revolution is my favorite period and the one I'd keep if I kept only one (will almost certainly keep a minimum of four periods - assuming I can actually talk myself in to downsizing at all) then I'm calling this augmentation 'no harm, no foul'.

As to the redesign of the guards, I'm thinking to have it as one unit in two battalions of 15 figures each. One stand of grenadiers and four stands of foot (including command) for one battalion and then one stand of lights and four stands of foot (again with command) for the other battalion. I can use the grenadiers and light troops I already have and then would only need to pick one pack of Polly Oliver figures to get the 24 figures I'd need for the 'hat' companies - and split the command up between the battalions.

That leaves those two battalions I'd had planned as my guard units as 'orphans' but I will add a couple of packs (those fusiliers) to make another British foot brigade. And if I'm going to delve this deep into making changes, I'll certainly do a bit more with Burgoyne's organization - the 24th will go back that way. I can see some changes for the Hessians - one brigade of musketeers, one brigade of fusiliers, one brigade of garrison troops, and one brigade of grenadiers - plus one for the formed grenadier unit as opposed to the converged battalions, and one 'brigade' of jaegers. Chances are I'll bring forward enough more French troops to have another line brigade.

Dang, I've gone and opened up a real can of worms for myself here, haven't I? None of the above even touches on adjustments on the continental side - except for the added militia, of course. Well, I guess I'll just have to get busy fishing for exactly how I want to do all this - in more detail. I guess we can put this down to the blessings - and the curses - of the internet. For me the silver lining is getting back to the design and organization side of the hobby, a element I really enjoy. Hazardous activity, though!

May 23, 2014The Penultimate "Organizational" Post

Below is the final organizational posting for my American Revolution figure collection - and every thing, save one last pack on order at the local hobby shop, is already awaiting being worked on in my well organized lead mountain. Sure, there will be some annotations to this post over time as indicated in the notes included. But this is it:

Imagine being relieved by having fewer figures than you thought? Yes? No? For me, very much yes. I suspected I had a bit over 5,000 pieces for this collection but it turns out the number is a bit lower. That means fewer figures to paint! Oh, what a relief.

So, here it is: 3,940 Men, 16 Women, 360 Horses, 44 Cannons, 240 Men as dismounts for mounted, and 264 Casualty figures for a great and grand total of 4,864. Life is good.

1800 infantry for the 'good guys' and 1458 foot for the 'imperial horde'. Imagine that many figures on the table! Okay, maybe not. But I will be doing the full battle of Brandywine at some point.

February 20, 2017At long last, I've started working on this collection. All 20 cavalry regiments are prepped and primed for painting and all of the men have their base skin tones applied already, next will be a wash on the skin tones and then the base colors on the horses. Works out as 531 men and 269 horses - the odd numbers come with the horse holders, 31 men, 29 horses; 20 of the men are dead/casualty figures. There are 240 mounted men and 240 dismounted men. Even though I will be using horse holders - something that changed - I won't reduce fighting strength when dismounted (unless there are stand losses within the game or as part of a scenario).February 23, 2017
Well, I got back to tabulating this collection after some additions courtesy of some releases from Peter Pig and a re-release of some Stone Mountain AWI figures. And here is the new tally: 3,312 infantry 200 casualty figures; 240 cavalry (as above post for the 20th) with 20 casualty figures ; 97 mounted command figures and 97 horses with 97 foot figures (one of whom is a woman) - no casualty figures; 192 artillery crewmen including 16 'extras' and 44 artillery pieces and 16 limbers with 16 horses and 16 men with 51 casualty figures (which means a few extra); the two scout units work out having 24 men and 12 horses and 2 casualty figures; the pioneers and corps of invalids total 30 men and 2 casualty figures; and finally there are 99 civilians (31 women) and 12 horses with 5 casualty figures.

So 4,071 men and 32 women plus the 271 dismounted men, 402 horses, 56 pieces of equipment, and 271 dead. That all adds up to 5,103 pieces. So, over 5,000 after all. And here's the real rub - I might choose to add more figures but if I do they will just be casualty figures for the command but maybe not. What is more likely is that I might replace a lot of the artillery pieces with better models since too many of them were 'catch-as-catch-can' purchases and maybe add guns for those 16 extra crewmen so 4 more guns. Only time will tell.

Besides all of the cavalry, the limbers, the extra artillery crews, the scouts, the pioneers and invalids, and the civilians are all primed and ready for paint - that's 245 figures. And that means that over 1,000 of the total are already in process. Only a tiny bit below 80% to go. Level bayonets, at the quick step...charge!